Goff on TPP

Labour’s Phil Goff is back in business, adding his strong and rational voice to New Zealand’s advocacy for the completion of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Goff wants to see a renewed focus on the upside for New Zealand from achieving greater access to some of the Asia-Pacific’s economic powerhouses through a deal which will link 12 nations.

To Goff trade is New Zealand’s lifeblood.

He reckons the Labour Party has to become focused on economic growth, jobs and tax revenue – “You can’t legislate for revenue.”

Or wages!

The challenge for Labour is to interpret trade policy around its own core values. “There are huge advantages from being involved with TPP and even bigger disadvantages of being locked out. But there are defensive issues where we need to fight tooth and nail to protect interests.”

Such as intellectual property laws

Goff has had the shadow trade portfolio only since Monday but already he is signalling that the bilateral consensus that has sustained New Zealand’s international reputation for nearly three decades will be continued.

Fentex

New Zealand lives on trade, and expanding our opportunities for it would be a good thing.

But not at a cost of holding our freedoms to seek opportunity hostage to the lawyers of wealthier countries.

It is hard to conceive of benefits worthy enough to offset having the future closed to us if we tried to bargain for more markets for low yield primary produce at the cost of having others control what new markets and business we would be permitted.

Ian McK

Once a dork, always a dork. What happened to the Triumph he was riding trying to gain traction amongst the bike brigade? I suppose this was as cosmetic as his policy statements. He, like his parliamentary losers are cosmetic; and Fran, put your keyboard in another place, you are typing shit.

Black with a Vengeance

Wayne Mapp

Well, there are fair few cheap shots against Phil Goff here, but this was an important interview.

For the last few months Labour’s activists and a fair few few of their MP’s have effectively been campaigning against TPP (and DPF is dangerously close to the margin on this as well). So Phil has made it plain that Labour is still actually mainstream on this.

If TPP is actually successfully negotiated, could you really imagine that NZ would not ratify an trade and economic agreement that includes Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

We would have to be completely bonkers to opt out in such a case. And we won’t get everything we want. There will be changes around IP, but every negotiating state will have agreed to them.